Sunday, 15 September 2013

Skills for an HR Department

A
human resources Department is a professional who is trained in the various
aspects of the job, including benefits administration, recruiting and adherence
to federal and state employment laws. The HR generalist applies her skills to
working with company managers to maintain the current staff and anticipate
future staffing needs. Five skills are essential to succeed in the career.

1.Multitasking

The
list of responsibilities that an HR Professional has is long and daunting. They
include arranging and conducting interviews, recruiting candidates, checking
with departmental managers to make sure all staffing needs are being met,
staying up to date on employment laws and meeting with individual employees on
HR issues. To complete these and more, an HR Department needs to be able to
multitask and remain organized at all times.

3.Analytical
Skills

An
HR Professional needs to review many different kinds of documents, understand
their meaning, gather the necessary information and process that information.
These documents include benefits applications, salary comparisons, resumes,
applications and legal compliance forms. The HR generalist needs to quickly and
accurately pull essential information from these documents and act on it.

4.Leadership

An
HR Professionals needs to assume the responsibility of a leader. Employees and
managers look to the generalist for instructions on following proper employment
protocols. HR generalists also work directly with corporate managers to
anticipate staffing needs for the future, outline the requirements for new
positions within the company and keep a steady supply of employment candidates
available should a current employee be terminated or quit. The rest of the
company looks to the human resources group to maintain proper staffing levels,
and that requires the skills of a corporate leader.

5.Fairness

Successful
HR professionals demonstrate fairness. This means that communication is clear,
that peoples’ voices are heard, that laws and policies are followed, and that privacy
and respect is maintained.

6.Strategic
Orientation

Forward-thinking
HR professionals take a leadership role and influence management’s strategic
path. In gauging and filling the labor needs of the company, devising
compensation schemes, and bringing on board new skill sets leading to business
growth, they provide the proof for the often-heard management comment, “People
are our most important asset.”

7.Employee
Trust

Employees
expect Human Resources professionals to advocate for their concerns, yet you
must also enforce top management’s policies. The HR professional who can pull
off this delicate balancing act wins trust from all concerned.

8.Discretion
and Business Ethics

Human
Resources professionals are the conscience of the company, as well as the
keepers of confidential information. As you serve the needs of top management,
you also monitor officers’ approaches to employees to ensure proper ethics are
observed. You need to be able to push back when they aren’t, to keep the firm
on the straight and narrow. Not an easy responsibility! Of course, you always
handle appropriately, and never divulge to any unauthorized person,
confidential information about anyone in the organization.

9.Strong
Communication Skills –

Probably
the most important for an HR professional, can you communicate clearly,
effectively and in multiple mediums? If your employees don’t get clarity from
HR, everything else can go haywire.

10.Organizational Skills –

HR
employees are handling many different kinds of information and deal with
multiple vendors and peers on a daily basis. To be a great HR employee, strong
organization is a must.

11.Self
Discipline –

This
again is a common quality that everyone should have, irrespective of the
profession they are in, but it is more appreciable in HR Professionals and is
like a must have quality. They need to set standards for others to follow; they
need to benchmark their own behavior and if they start flowing with water,
everything else will go for a toss and things will go out of control. I have
heard, people saying that I am doing this or that because others are also doing
it but that is not expected from HR Professionals. Discipline in life is a must
to grow, prosper and being successful. So, set standards and don't just flow.